This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Application No. 2001-290257, filed on Sep. 21, 2001; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a paper-like materials processing apparatus which processes paper-like materials taken out on a conveying path by detecting their features and, more particularly, to a banknote receiving machine which takes out banknotes one by one on a conveying path, conveys, detects features such as kinds and directions of banknotes, uniformly arranges the front/back and the top/bottom and accumulates them by kind.
A banknote receiving apparatus is so far known as a paper-like materials processing apparatus. For example, plural kinds of banknotes are collectively inserted into this banknote receiving apparatus in mix and these inserted banknotes are taken out on a conveying path one by one, its feature is detected and the front/back and the top/bottom are arranged uniformly and accumulated by kind.
However, a banknote size differs according to kind and the feature position also differs depending on kind. Therefore, depending on the position of a detecting portion arranged for detecting banknote features, the detecting portion may not oppose to the feature portion and there may be banknotes of which features cannot be detected precisely. Because of this, in a conventional apparatus, many detectors are provided in the cross direction of a conveying path so that the features of banknotes are detected precisely even when the feature portion passes any position. Accordingly, there were such problems that it became necessary to provide many detectors, the structure of apparatus was complicated and the manufacturing cost was increased.
Furthermore, in a conventional apparatus there were such problems that when the banknote conveying posture was tilted to the conveying path (skewed) and/or one-sided (shifted) to the cross direction of the conveying path, banknotes were conveyed on the conveying path in such a improper posture and the feature detecting accuracy of banknotes by the detector further dropped.
So, as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/899,851 (Filed on Jul. 9, 2001), an apparatus to correct the shift of banknotes before correcting the skew by correction rollers is proposed.
That is, as a method to correct the banknotes that are being conveyed in the state shifted by a certain distance from the conveying center in a conveying device, the Swing Arm Roller (hereinafter, abbreviated as SAR) method is proposed. In this SAR method, the rotary shaft (the driving shaft) of the SAR is set vertically to the conveying plane at the conveying center of the apparatus. At the time of shift correction, this SAR is held around the rotary shaft at a certain angle and corrects the shift of banknotes when passing the SAR. So, the SAR is set at an angle to the conveying direction so that the shifted amount of banknotes becomes zero (0) at the moment when banknotes pass the SAR and become free from the force from the SAR.
That is, in this method for correcting the banknote position shift, the banknotes shift is corrected by tilting the, correction arm by a measured amount of the shift (distance) of the banknote position from the banknote center added with the length of banknotes in the shorter direction. This position shift is corrected while maintaining a skew angle.
However, according to this proposed method, the shift is corrected by continuously rotating the correction arm roller at a fixed speed. In this method, when the correction arm is tilted, the speed of the correction arm roller in the conveying direction drops according to a tilting angle of the correction roller and there is such a problem that when a banknote is taken in the correction arm roller, the speed drops in a moment, the collision phenomenon is caused and the posture (tilt) of a banknote may possibly be changed.
In addition, the posture and skew of each of the banknotes taken in the posture correction device are corrected while the swing angles of the position shift correction arm and the skew correction arm are swung to proper swing values in order. Each of the correction arms has an actual swing time and the driving operation of the correction arms must be finished to the correction angle before a banknote to be corrected enters into the correction arm. The correction arms need a time for the driving operation and it is limited to correct two sheets of banknote taken out closely. Banknotes closely taken in closely in excess of this limitation are not corrected and it is therefore necessary to prohibit the correction. When the correction arms are kept at the same positions, there was a problem that the position shift might be more expanded if the correction arms are in the tilted state.
An object of the present invention is to provide a paper-like materials processing apparatus that is capable of bringing the velocity of the position correcting roller for moving paper-like materials at an angle based on the amount of position shift crossing the conveying direction of paper-like material in accord with the conveying velocity by the conveying means and preventing the posture of paper-like materials from changing by the position correction roller.
According to the present invention, a paper-like materials processing apparatus is provided. This paper-like materials processing apparatus comprises: conveying means for conveying paper-like materials along a conveying path; first detecting means for detecting a shift amount of paper-like materials being conveyed by the conveying means in the direction crossing the conveying direction; moving means provided at the latter stage of the detecting means on the conveying path, provided with a supporting arm supported at the center of the conveying path and shift correction rollers proved to this supporting arm for moving paper-like materials being conveyed by the conveying means in the direction crossing the conveying path; first calculating means for calculating a driving angle of the support arm based on a shift amount from a prescribed position detected by the first detecting means; second calculating means for calculating number of revolutions of the shift correction rollers so that a speed component out of the peripheral speed of the shift correction rollers in the conveying direction of paper-like materials becomes equal to a conveying speed by the shift correction rollers; support arm rotating means for rotating the support arm of the moving means based on the driving angle calculated by the first calculating means; correction roller rotating means for rotating the shift correction rollers of the moving means based on the number of revolutions calculated by the second calculating means; and first correcting means for correcting the shift from a prescribed position of the paper-like materials by moving the paper-like materials that are conveyed by the conveying means in the direction crossing the conveying path in the state with the support arm of the moving means rotated in the direction crossing the conveying path by the support arm rotating means and in the state with the shift correction rollers of the moving means being rotated at the number of revolutions by the correction roller rotating means.
Further, according to the present invention, a paper-like materials processing apparatus is provided. This paper-like materials processing apparatus comprises: conveying means for conveying paper-like materials in order consecutively along a conveying path; first detecting means for detecting shift amounts of preceding paper-like materials conveyed in order by the conveying means to either left and right directions crossing the conveying direction, skew amounts in the direction crossing the conveying direction of paper-like materials, and a gap of preceding and current paper-like materials; first correcting means for correcting the shift and skew in the direction crossing the conveying direction based on the shift and skew amounts detected by the detecting means for the preceding and current paper-like materials when a gap between the preceding and current paper-like materials detected by the first detecting means is more than a prescribed gap; and prohibiting means for prohibiting the correction of shift and skew for the preceding and current paper-like materials being conveyed by the conveying means when a gap between the preceding and current paper-like materials detected by the first detecting means are less than the prescribed gap.